This year we’re going in a pretty different direction: discontinued food products. These are products you may have fond (or horrifying) memories of, but for one reason or another (likely weak sales) they were discontinued. We want to know, which of these products deserve a second chance on grocery store shelves? Which of these now dead products really is the BEST?

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So let the debate begin! What awesome products did the selection committee snub that you’d like to see be brought back? Which products are you rooting for to win? Who will be the strongest contenders? Who do you predict will win each first round match-up? Each region? How many of these foods have you had yourself?

Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for all the latest announcements when voting on new match-ups begins. Also, tweet about the bracket, the match-ups and who you vote for! Use #DiscontinuedFoods

How it works: Starting Friday, March 22nd, we’ll post four match-ups each weekday, at approximately 9am, 11am, 1pm & 3pm. Voting on each first round match-up will be open for approximately 48 hours. The 2nd round will kick off on Monday, April 1st.

Format: This year we are reverting back to a 32-contender tournament after 3 years with a 64 team field. I put together a spreadsheet of well over a hundred discontinued or now near impossible to find products and we could have easily done 64, but the goal was to pick the best of the best – products people actually MISS. I.e. no one is clamoring for the return of New Coke…are they? Also new this year for the first time? No seeding. After all, these products are all dead or near-dead, and seeding them would have felt like picking the turd that smelled the least bad.

How Products Were Chosen: Most of these products simply vanished from the shelves. Others were killed off after being tweaked and re-branded (i.e. Mr. Pibb was replaced by Pibb Xtra, Four Loko was reformulated). In a few cases (Jolt, Clearly Canadian, Dunkaroos, Rice Krispies Treats & Full Throttle) these products kind of exist in that they are still listed on manufacturer’s websites, you can find them on Amazon, eBay or in one specific regional store. But any nationwide availability and visibility they once had is completely destroyed, hence their inclusion. In some cases, a discontinued product is still sold in countries outside the U.S. or has a chance to be manufactured here again (i.e. Twinkies). Overall, we picked only products we thought people missed and would actually WANT again. This doesn’t include any toy/tv show/movie related cereal which there seemed to be so many of, from Nintendo to Bill & Ted’s Excellent cereal. And as fond as your memories may be of the Arch Deluxe or Lays WOW chips, no one is clamoring for their return – in the case of the latter, particularly those who are anti-anal leakage. In contrast to those duds, many of these products have petitions with thousands of signatures asking for their return.

Travis – for sure, Four Loko as it once was has died, which is why it was selling for like $50 a can on ebay when they were changing the formula.

W – Zima’s domestic production ended in 2008, if it’s still available in the U.S. it must be old bottles people stored. In 2001, Pibb Xtra, which is a slightly different formula (rumored to have more cinnamon flavor) replaced Mr. Pibb in virtually the entire country.

Gig – Fruitty Yummy Mummy is for sure dead, just didn’t make the cut. Boo-Berry is kind of a McRib situation – they still manufacture it for a nationwide release, its just seasonal around Halloween.

Hey all – as noted in the “How products were chosen” section, a number of these products (Jolt, Dunkaroos, Full Throttle etc) are still being manufactured, but have essentially disappeared from being readily available on shelves across the country and are now only available in a select few areas or through online ordering.

OK, I got here way after the fact, but still would like to put in a word for the best breath mints ever: Breath Savers Strong Mints, Peppermint with Menthol. They’ve been replaced by mints with some chemical called neutrazin. No comparison!